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Great Southern Land Lyrics
Artist: Icehouse
Album: Primitive Man
Standing at the limit of an endless ocean
stranded like a runaway, lost at sea
city on a rainy day down in the harbour
watching as the grey clouds shadow the bay
looking everywhere 'cause I had to find you
this is not the way that i remember it here
anyone will tell you its a prisoner island
hidden in the summer for a million years
Great Southern Land, burned you black
so you look into the land and it will tell you a story
story 'bout a journey ended long ago
if you listen to the motion of the wind in the mountains
maybe you can hear them talking like I do
". . they're gonna betray, they're gonna forget you
are you gonna let them take you over this way . ."
Great Southern Land, Great Southern Land
you walk alone like a primitive man
and they make it work with sticks and bones
see their hungry eyes, its a hungry home
I hear the sound of the stranger's voices
I see their hungry eyes, their hungry eyes
Great Southern Land, Great Southern Land
they burned you black, black against the ground
Great Southern Land, in the sleeping sun
you walk alone with the ghost of time
they burned you black, black against the ground
and they make it work with rocks and sand
I hear the sound of the stanger's voices
I see their hungry eyes, their hungry eyes
Great Southern Land, Great Southern Land
you walk alone, like a primitive man
you walk alone with the ghost of time
and they burned you black
yeah, they burned you black
Great Southern Land
Submitted by Michael Hack
Related:
Icehouse Lyrics
Icehouse Primitive Man Lyrics
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Icehouse - Glam Lyrics
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Icehouse - One By One Lyrics
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Comments/Interpretations
This rocks... But I need the guitar notes :(
this is a head banging song
That song is prettty fucken ozzie cobbers!
i reckon its one of the best songs to dance to!
( + it rocks)
(P.S. so does 'Solid Rock!)
I'm glad you are liking my song
Should be Australia's National Anthem
wonderfully evocative lyrics with imagery that captures a hauntimg dicotomy of the future and past of this beautiful, harsh land - its iconic
Lovely song, thanks alot!
I think Ivor Davies is a magnificent Singer and I want his number he is so hot
I hate this fucking song now
Beautiful song. I love this song. Ivor Davies is an magnificent singer. He is the best. I have truly never heard a better voice than this. It would be so good if I could get an CD of this song. I love Ivor Daviees. Looooooooong live his songs.
fukn awsome song luved it wen it 1st came out and still do,yep should b aussie national antham
Wow, just love this powerful song. First heard it on "Young Einstein". Wish it was available on iTunes!
i dream of Australia ;)
If iva listens here what was your inspiration when you wrote this??
lyrics are not fully correct but good enough i suppose
Its just amazing song...Should be sung in Indian desserts as well
its based on australia you idiot
why would it be sung in indian desserts?
One of the classic aussie bands singing the true aussie patriotism. We know where we have been. We know where we are going and we know the true history of this great continent. Aussies understand every word of the song and it's true meaning.
Peace
Bones & home, Mike? That reminds me
a little of P.F.S.'s behaviour, an-other singer, I don't know, don't think, if I can explain to myself, till the one realizes, what true ↔ happiness is, was, meanwhile an is-sue, whereon yourself are quite welcome, anyway, please, to receive
a few more mails of mine, so that I
can of course tell & e.g. help us both etc. find out &, whoever's who, our best answers to, what's our just as good future, all about & forever to be, why & when, gree-tings, 'J.A.,' arentved@in.com, a semi-ac. Dane, there to be conti-nued.
sup bro
In this song you can almost hear the haunting sounds of the aboriginal dreamtime and even possibly the waves slapping against the hull of the HMS Endeavour as she sailed into Botany Bay for the first time so many years ago. We truly do live in a Great Southern Land. As usual Davies and Icehouse didn't miss a beat.
fucking great song!
you missed a verse
I lived in Australia for almost 3 years and therez no doubt that itz the best place in the world. This song best describes Oz. God bless "Great Southern Land". I listen to this song whenever I feel nostalgic. The best song.
Should be our National Anthem! Girt?
This song is the epitomy of Australia Day. Would be a bit sticky being sung in any desserts. Probably best sung in deserts instead!
this is awesome it should be the austrail song!!!!!!!!
The best fucken song
gooooood !
thanks you
u gotta be joking me this is gay
wierd song
woop woop why would you make this the Australian antham???? CRAZY
it is about a land of suffering and hungry people and the land was burnt to the ground
i have to do this for an assignment can someone summarise???????
Even here, in Brasil, listening to this song I can feel the shadows in the bay, the worm air of desert, the walking of the primitive man, the voice of the wind... A amazing song lyric, in a wonderfull music... Congratullations, Icehouse!
one of the best songs of the 80´s decade !!!!!
gr8 song 100% Aussie
The song for itself is perfect, but when I listen I remember immediately that scenes of Young Einstein.
this song is great for my assembley fukin great!!!!
You cunts are gay. Fucking ruined a good song. Thanks a lot
I love this song my friend from spain he toll me about this one we love it rhx
One of my most fav songs ever! :)
nice
THIS IS A GREAT ASSIE SONG I LOVE IT
great song timeless
how awesome is this song, it should be our national anthem LOL..I'm off to watch Icehouse tomorrow night, evening on the green at King's Park in Perth..can't wait, loving the aussie bands, they rock
Love this song...will never 4get the opening of the millennium concert in Sydney because of ICEHOUSE.
Just BRILLIANT!!!!
..The rumour I heard that Iva Davies wrote this great song as a he was repulsed by Men at Works "Land Downunder" and was appalled at how Australia was portrayed in their song, as if Vegemite was all we had to offer....
Like I said, just a rumour that floated around through the 80's. Flowers/Icehouse amongst so many other bands of that era (Models, Rockmelons etc) are still are on my i-pod, and are played regularly. It's a bit of home for me here in the USA.
Great Southern Song.
Respect from Great Northen Land =)
exceptional song , I fell in love with it after my visit to Australia
sexual
What a terribly boring song full of repetitive nonsense. Seems to be about the indigenous people of Australia getting taken over by the Europeans. Yeah great national anthem for us racists!! Pfft you idiots.
Great Southern Land was in fact inspired by Davies' first trip away from home, when Icehouse headed to far shores to tour internationally in 1981.
As his Qantas flight travelled above the outback's vast interior, the songwriter was struck by its size and starkness as he watched it unfold for hours from his window seat.
After suffering a desperate bout of homesickness during the European and American tour, Davies resolved to write a song about Australia.
"I know I was insane to take this on because if you get it wrong, you get it wrong spectacularly but it was one of only four or five songs I have ever done that fell magically into place,'' he said.
I love the song, it is timless and tells about the harsness of our land, it is truely Australian, and thats a good enough reason to love it
What an awesome song. Makes me miss the '80's in the down under. What an awesome land. I will always love oz.
what are you talking about
This song is better than Land Down Under by that cock eyed guy and his flute.
La mejor canción jamás escrita
I just saw these guys, on Australia Day. There was not a single person still seated when this song was played. It's a great Aussie song from a great Aussie band.
When I first heard this song, I thought it was about New Zealand. This song rocks, nice to cruise to when you're driving.
Love the song. Sadly not OK as an anthem - lyrics not bland enough. This is about the vast ancient land, Aboriginal presence and dispossession and the fact that non-Aboriginal-Australians have only been here a bit over 200 years -"stranger's voices" - a blink in terms of geological time or even the 40,000 years of Aboriginal time in the land. "they burned you black, black against the ground" is probably a reference to human-caused bush-fires - firestick farming (look it up) and the frequent occurrence of bush fires over the last 200 or so years. Also check out Midnight Oils "Beds are burning" also from the 1980s.
Awsome song.
8:)put on your goggles. LOL!
Awesome song
8-) Bug eyes Big Nose. LOL!
hi
we are doing a school song that is called great southern land LOL!
zara johnston
Test
Great song
awesome song but Micheal Hack missed a whole paragraph of the real thing! }:-(
to hear the whole thing search up "Great Southern Land full" on Youtube
The lyric "city" is "Sydney." Not sure why that is wrong on every lyrics site ever.
Hi nice song
This song is shite. I saw Ivor Davies in concert and he spent the whole gig standing in front of fans and making his ugly hair flow and trying to look epic. He was the most embarassing, talentless poof of the eighties. A decade that encouraged a lot of assholes to try "Music".
Thank you Justen for correctly spelling Iva's name.
This song epitomises Australia in the '80's, when we kicked Americas arse and took your cup, borrowed big and had made it onto the Northern stage...I leave Oliva Newton John and Ken Done out of it.
Ummm. Apologise about a big change of subject, but just wondering if there are any thoughts and feelings shared between the specialness we feel with "Great Southern Land" and the prophecy of the "Great South Land of the Holy Spirit"... Although there has been a very long conversation between anthropologists and other social scientists about Indigenous dispossession, displacement and a recent history of Christianisation, I have also shared very sacred hopes and prayer with Indigenous Australians, and I wonder what Ivor's view is on this great land being a place of spiritual oneness....
It's a song about taking the land from the aborigines. Burning them black like burnt sticks on the ground. I hear the voices means I can hear the spirits of the land, those eyes looking at me are the spirit eyes, So to speak. A song about adventure, travel, longing for the Aussie adventure-connecting with the land. Cool!
this song is very goooood
Love the song. Sadly not OK as an anthem - lyrics not bland enough. This is about the vast ancient land, Aboriginal presence and dispossession and the fact that non-Aboriginal-Australians have only been here a bit over 200 years -"stranger's voices" - a blink in terms of geological time or even the 40,000 years of Aboriginal time in the land. "they burned you black, black against the ground" is probably a reference to human-caused bush-fires - firestick farming (look it up) and the frequent occurrence of bush fires over the last 200 or so years. Also check out Midnight Oils "Beds are burning" also from the 1980s.
good song hey daniel
National anthem? Seriously? Has anyone actually heard Star Spangled Banner? How can there be any comparison?!
Ian:
No offense but.. Australian National Anthem is by far, better than your US anthem.
No comparison. :)
i miss my mummy
This is shit
nice